This is from Sonyalpharumors, but they quote it as a "very good Tamron source":
'Tamron is working on a new SP.2 lens line. It is made to resolve the High resolution Full Frame sensors coming from Sony. In detail Sony told Tamron that it’s “around” 46 megapixel.
– The 15-30mm f/2.8 DI VC USD lens Tamron announced at Photokina is the first of the new SP.2 line.

"This telephoto zoom from Tamron certainly delivers. Sharpness is excellent from maximum aperture through much of the zoom range, plus chromatic aberrations and distortion are kept well in check. The suggested retail price may come as a shock for many, who may be expecting this lens to be considerably cheaper than lenses from camera manufacturers. Even so, the performance of this lens is on a par with those lenses, and suggested price at launch is rarely the price a lens will eventually retail for.". . . read more

So, the Tamron manages to closely match such expensive and optically well endowed lenses as the Canon 24-70mm f2.8L USM II, and the Nikkor 24-70mm G ED, both costing around the 2 grand mark in every major western currency:

"The Tamron SP 24-70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD is in the top three best performing high-speed standard zooms currently available. We’ve only looked at the imaging performance, but it’s as impressive optically as the highly regarded Nikon AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8G ED. At $1,299 it’s not cheap but it is competitively priced – to improve on the image quality you would have to spend $1,000 for the sublime Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 II USM. Dropping down. . . read more

For some reasons only known to Tamron's managers, the company chooses to enter the micro 4/3 format with a 14-150mm zoom, closely matching the popular Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-150mm f/4.0-5.6 and the elder Panasonic Lumix G Vario HD 14-140mm f/4-5.8 ASPH MEGA OIS lenses.

Now, if they had bothered to shave a millimeter or two off the wide end, it would have been really exciting news, but as it stands now, the micro 4/3 mount is served by no less than 11 zoom lenses all sharing the 14mm wide end. Is there enough playing field for the New kid? . . . read more

"Before making a buying decision, you need to work out if a macro lens is for you. Clearly if you want to shoot macro images, the answer is yes, but how about if macro is not at the top of your list? Well, macro lenses are actually some of the most versatile around, especially when they fall around the 90mm focal length, because they make very good portrait lenses that are sharp and offer a fast maximum aperture to help achieve a shallow depth of field. Many models now also include some form of image stabilization as well making them great in hand-held low light shooting.. . . read more

"Looking at the list of pros and cons, published above, and comparing the results of other lenses, tested by us in particular categories it is pretty transparent that all 90–105 mm stabilized macro lenses keep a similar, very high level. It doesn’t mean that there are no differences between them. The best performance seems to be presented by the Canon 2.8/100L IS USM which in many categories topped the list and had practically no slip-ups. Right behind it there are the Tamron and the Nikkor and the Sigma fares the worst.. . . read more

"Nikon: I’m asking for a lot here, Santa, but ‘tis the season to help those in need.

First, if you could fit a quality control department in the sleigh that would be lovely.

Also, could you bring Nikon USA a reasonable Factory Service Center, too? If that’s not possible, then I’ll go ahead and ask you to bring them some customers in 2014 or so, because they’ll be needing new customers about then. And . . . read more

It will be interesting to follow Tamron's SP (Superior Performance) venture into the marketplace. While Tamron has seemingly made every effort to match the bigtwo in features, build and optical performance, they lost the one big advantage they had over the years: the usually much lower price.

"Image quality is generally excellent at the 70mm, 100mm and 135mm focal lengths, with fantastic sharpness virtually throughout the aperture range. Chromatic aberrations are very well controlled and flare is only ever an issue when shooting. . . read more

"The Tamron SP 90mm F/2.8 Di MACRO 1:1 VC USD is an excellent update of Tamron's very popular 90mm lens, with the new optical construction offering great image quality and lovely smooth bokeh, and the built-in image stabilisation increasing its versatility to include hand-held as well as tripod-mounted photography. The auto-focus system is fast and accurate enough to also make the lens useful as a short telephoto for portraits when used on a full-frame camera.". . . read more

"he stabilisation system in the Canon and Nikon versions is the latest version of Tamron's proprietary VC (Vibration Compensation) technology. As before, it uses voice coil motors to activate the shake-compensating lens group electromagnetically via three ceramic balls. The new system has a lighter moving coil attached to the VC element reducing the load on the drive system. (Lenses with Sony mounts lack stabilisation as it's provided in the camera bodies.). . . read more

"Autofocus is near-silent, but on the Canon-mount version we tested not especially fast - this is one area where it lags behind similar lenses from Sigma, Nikon or Canon. But the PZD motor is at least faster than the sometimes painfully-slow micromotor used in the older Tamron AF 18-270mm F/3.5-5.6 Di II VC. The image stabilization system works quite well too, although we've found it to be slightly less effective than its predecessor's, it's still good for letting you use shutter speeds a couple of stops slower than you'd otherwise be able to hand-hold without blur. . . . read more

"Distortion is very well controlled throughout the zoom range. At 70mm only 0.645% barrel distortion is present, which is replaced with 0.42% pincushion distortion at 200mm. If straight lines are paramount, then you'll be pleased to learn that the distortion pattern is uniform across the frame, making it relatively easy to correct in image editing software afterwards, although this distortion is so mild, very few people will actually need to apply any corrections.. . . read more

"Even with the inclusion of Vibration Compensation, this lens isn't much heavier than it's predecessor, striking a good balance between the use of high quality materials and construction and light weight. Weighing about 550g and being just short of 123mm long, it balances well on the Canon EOS 5D MkII used for testing. The lens sports a moisture resistant design and a thin rubber gasket has been placed around the metal lens mount to help prevent the ingress of dust and moisture into the camera body.. . . read more

"We've got the new Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro 1:1 VC USD lens in for testing, and are currently putting together our full review, but in the meantime, feel free to have a look at our sample photos and test data from the lens. We are testing the lens on the Canon EOS 5D Mark II."

Tamron's intention with the SP (Special Performance) line is to play in the league of big boys, like Canon's "L" lenses, but at a lower price point. The experiment has been mostly successful:

"Focus accuracy and repeatability is critical to consistently produce sharp shots. Repeatability (the accuracy of focus on the same subject after repeated focus-acquisition) of this lens is excellent with no outliers over a series of 20 shots. And there is. . . read more

"Just like the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G, the Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 feels very solid in hands. Although its barrel is made of plastic (versus the all-metal construction of the Nikon 24-70mm) it does not have a cheap or “plasticky” feel to it at all. Keep in mind that plastic does not expand and contract like metal does when temperatures change quickly, which can actually prolong the life and performance of a lens. All new Nikon AF-S primes, even the most expensive ones like the Nikon . . . read more

"Tamron's lens doesn't have quite the same build-quality as the Big Two, but the USM focusing is fast and quiet, the construction is shower-proof and most importantly the image quality is excellent.". . . read more

"The predecessor of the 18-270mm VC, the 18-250mm, came up with surprisingly high resolution numbers in our initial lab tests, but these tests were based on 8mp (Canon) and 10mp (Nikon) test bodies. The situation is a little different now on the 16 MP D7000, where the 18-270mm VC struggles somewhat to impress. At 18mm and 35mm the lens is able to deliver a generally decent quality with an extremely sharp center and acceptable borders, at least when stopped down. . . . read more

"Let’s cut right to the chase: the BIG difference between this lens, priced at about $750, and the Canon version, costing $1450, is in the autofocus: there’s simply no comparison. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of autofocusing a modern professional telephoto lens like my Canon 70-200, you’ve experienced the almost-instantaneous and silentoperation of its autofocus motors: you point your camera at something, hit the . . . read more

"When comparing the Tamron SP AF 10-24mm f3.5-4.5 DI II with the Canon EF-S 10-22/3.5-4.5 USM it's clear that the Canon lens is sharper, especially wide open and at the edges and corners of the image. Even with both lenses stopped down the Canon lens still provides a sharper edge and corner image, though the center sharpness of the Tamron equals that of the Canon. So if image sharpness across the frame is your . . . read more

It is stabilized, full frame, water proof, uses all the latest tech in glass, and for Canon users a welcome shoe-in between the aged EF 24-70mm f.2.8L and its for the past 4 years rumored successor. The sony mount version is of course not stabilized, and loses the 'VC' (Vibration Compensation) from the name. Price and availability TBA . . . read more